


A Terrible Sin

by Demon Dreams (ScribeAzari)



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Fearful little bean, Gen, Searcher - Freeform, Snippet, Wander loses a lot of time in sleep, Wandering Sin Bendy, ties into Lost and Found
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 12:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18521869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribeAzari/pseuds/Demon%20Dreams
Summary: Wandering is a terrible sin, or is it? Sometimes, straying is all that keeps you safe.





	A Terrible Sin

Straying was so often a mistake, in a place as dismal as this one. It could carry one’s feet far from safety, towards those that might mean harm. However, straying could also mean finding little hidden nooks off the beaten path. Tiny concealed sanctuaries where one could hide away, unseen by those that would mean ill.

The very first thing he could recall having done as _him_ was to run and hide. He had vague snatches of other things, but nothing so crisp and clear as tumbling out of the machine to the sound of gurgled wailing from somewhere else.

* * *

 

Shot through with fear, he bolted even before the mass of ink that fell after him had lurched into pursuit. What it was, he didn’t think of, nor how weirdly familiar its groaning voice was. All that mattered in his blind panic was getting away before he was the one screaming. Heart pounding as he skittered frantically away, he somehow run smack dab into a wall.

The impact _hurt,_ but somehow he… oozed straight through the wall. He didn’t understood what had just happened, but he definitely wasn’t about to question it. Not when those gurgled cries were dying down, and whoever or whatever had been provoking them could be coming in search of a new victim right at that moment.

There was no sign of door there, just an odd little walled-off nook with a strangely large cutout of a familiar demonic figure. For some reason, it really seemed as if he ought’ve expected the thing to be smaller… He was soon distracted, though, by the odd pull it had, calling him toward it.

A flicker of uneasy surprise rippled through him as he reached for it, noticing that his own gloved hand was very similar to the cutout’s – just bearing more dribbly stains. Surely that couldn’t be right… what else could be, though?

The moment his finger made contact with the cutout, his world lurched, squeezing and slurping his being into it. For some reason, once everything settled, he felt _safe._ Nothing was going to attack him like this…

For a long time, he slumbered, dormant within his cutout refuge. However, when a shock-wave of grating, cacophonous mental presence rocked through the studio, he was knocked loose from it, waking as he fell to the ground and clutched his head. It wasn’t something he felt he was ever likely to forget, even long afterwards.

Colour and freshness had fled, leaving stale, yellowed and cartoonish boards behind. He and his cutout had yellowed too – and when he was recovered enough to peer back at it, he could clearly see it had been warped by his occupancy. He bit his lip, fidgeting. Was that really what he looked like?

A grinning little demon with wide, unsettling eyes, face stained by dripping ink, grin visibly strained… Was this… him? His gut feeling was that it was, however strange it seemed for some reason. His image held a sign, though he couldn’t recall having made one or held one himself.

_WANDERING IS A TERRIBLE SIN._ Well… Maybe it was in the eyes of whoever might have caused the screaming, but as far as he was concerned it was what had saved him. Still, if he ever needed to scare off any intruders, maybe this would come in handy?

Sat huddled in his hideaway, there were many things that bothered him – one of these was just who he was. He was sure he ought to know, but no matter how he racked his mind, nothing bubbled to the surface. He definitely wasn’t Bendy, though – Bendy had _never_ looked like this. How he knew, he wasn’t sure, he just did.

Not having much to go on, he turned to his image for inspiration. He’d wandered right from the start, hadn’t he? Not to mention, he might find he needed to wander again… Wander… It had a certain ring to it...


End file.
